A Simple Air Fryer Meal With Blind-Friendly Kitchen Hacks

Dinner is on the line, Brenda’s not home, and I’m hungry, so I walk you through exactly how I make a fast meal while blind using simple systems that keep me safe and confident. This isn’t “perfect chef” content. It’s real-life, step-by-step narration of my kitchen setup, the tools I rely on, and the small habits that make the biggest difference when you’re blind or losing your sight.

We start with a quick kitchen tour and a cleanup trick I use every time: a towel under the plate that catches crumbs and folds up straight into the trash. From there I show how I heat a frozen Tex Mex chicken patty in a double-basket air fryer using liners to keep things clean, tactile markings to identify buttons, and metal tongs for safer handling. I also share a practical toaster safety tip to avoid reaching into hot slots, plus why organization is one of the best “assistive technologies” you can build for yourself.

Along the way I talk about what actually helps when vision changes: setting up consistent locations, using voice assistants for timers, accepting a little frustration, and asking for help to get started without giving up your independence. I close with a reminder I want you to hold onto: you’ve done hard things before, and there are people around you who will walk with you through this season, whether that’s vision loss, a health challenge, or something you didn’t expect.

If this helped, subscribe so you don’t miss the next one, share it with someone who needs encouragement, and leave a review or comment with your best blind cooking tip or kitchen hack.

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Transcript

Hungry Start And Dinner Plan

SPEAKER_00 0:00

So again, I'm hungry. Brenda's not home. And so that's my egg dash cooker, which is really, really super cool. Maybe I'll do a video on that one later. But today we are making dinner. So what I'm gonna do is jump right over here to my freezer. This is my first time making these. We're not actually gonna cook. Truth be told, we're gonna heat. That's what we're doing today. As soon as I turn left, out of my hallway. My first left is my cabinet, little pantry area. Next to that is the refrigerator. On my right hand side is the kitchen island. And you'll see a couple of things on here. I've already prepped a little bit so that it doesn't take so long to get this thing cooking and going as we shoot the video. And as I'm looking at the island, I've got a little towel on there. Uh, there's a paper plate here. The towel, that's my kitchen hack on how to keep things clean. I open that up, set my plate on there, whatever I miss or drop, whatever crumbs, anything like that. I can fold that up when I'm done, run it over to the trash can over in the other side of the room, and dump everything out in there, shake it out real good, and then we start back all over again. And that's kind of how I keep my place clean, because sometimes I make a mess. And if you're sighted, you know what? Sometimes you probably make a mess too. Just saying. Anyway, that's also my little tumbler cup. I use that to keep track of how much water I'm drinking that holds about 26-28 ounces. And so there we go. There's that. You've already seen on the kitchen island as well. I've already got a chicken patty here. It's a frozen chicken patty, it's pretty cool. It's Tex Mex style from uh Sam's. What do you call it? Oh gosh, what is their brand? What is Sam's Club's brand? Uh Members Mark. There you go. Really good. I've tried them before, frozen, frozen solid. But I took it out, and the reason this wrapper looks crazy is because I went to get a pair of scissors, couldn't find one, and so I had to use a different type of blade, one that I grew up using when I could still see. My dad taught me real well how to use one of those sharp objects that starts with a K, ends with an E, and uh how to do that and not cut yourself. So I can actually even still do that blind. Um, but it's a super dull knife, which I need to sharpen it, whatever. Anyway, so that's why that's why I um that's why the wrapper looks all crazy. Going back to the tour, so on my left side again, this is the refrigerator, freezer, left side, refrigerator right side. That's great. Keep on walking, and then we've got this L-shaped cabinet area, which all my gadgets are out. Burn is not home right now, and so I normally don't leave these out, but again, um, these are some things that I've used today. This is my panini press coffee machine over on the left corner as we scroll across, and then we'll come across the toaster here. I've got the toaster again. You know, I like to use these eco bread in the mornings and make toast. This is our double bucket air fryer, which is super super cool. Um, guys, don't laugh at my my markings here. So I couldn't find my actual bump dots, so we just rigged it, and it's a little ghetto, but that's all right, it still works. And so these buttons, I'll identify them real quick. This top left button is what turns these are the buttons, like I said, you know, you turn it on, you set it to where you want to cook, all that kind of stuff, temperature time, and then this far right button that I've got marked over here where my thumb is at is how to start the one once we got it going. Like I said, I've already got the bread out, I've already got the bread out so that I can have that ready to go. These are some tongs, that's just super handy. You always want to use metal ones when you're using the panini press, especially, and sometimes the air fryer because plastic might just melt that stuff completely off. What I have right here in my hand now is this is a lifesaver, whether you're sighted, blind, visually impaired, blind impaired, whatever you happen to be, right? You know, but these are just little wax paper that fits inside your air fryer and helps keep it clean. I'll show you that in just a second. Keeping the tour, we're rolling across this same little countertop, and then of course I got my paper towels here. Hey, I reached up at the right place. Right, the paper towels there. I've always got a paper towel handy when I'm gonna cook or warm something up because I don't like to have stuff on my hands, like just I'm I'm weird about it, right? Okay, so I'm constantly wiping my hands. Um, over here is carton of eggs, these are fresh eggs, farm fresh. Shout out to a good friend of ours. So she brought us these, that's great. And this is my egg cooker. This is a dash cooker. If you want to know more about it, you know it's pretty simple to use. I'll probably shoot a breakfast video on that one day. Here is the rest of the kitchen as I've now turned to the right from coming in out of the hallway and all that kind of stuff. Here's the sink. Um, my wife might be a little upset because I've got um shooting a video and I've got two things in that sink. So there's probably a bowl and a cup that I've used. Again, another video right there we can do washing a couple of dishes. Here's the other counter, the end of the counter. This to my left now is my front door. My cane is always next to the door. There's a trash can, which I'll also be using. So that is just a quick tour as I've turned completely around. If you're wondering why I'm doing all this, uh, you know, describing what's going on, narration, it's because this is not just for sighted people, but it's also for blind people. These are some how-tos and some quick things that I do normally. Okay, guys, I've turned back around in my kitchen, I'm walking straight forward here. Now I've already got my chicken out ready. So we'll take that back over. I'm coming to my island, grab the chicken. So we'll take this back over to where the air fryer's at. So another thing I love about this counter is because it's L-shaped, I can put things near the corner. So all I gotta do is find that corner, everything else is right there. Now, getting back to I've moved back over to this cool little contraption. Wax paper. I actually told you guys in one of the videos that I shot about my vision lost in that journey is what it was in the beginning, it was kind of like looking through wax paper. That wax paper just gets placed straight down in the bottom of that, um in the bottom of that basket, so we're good to go there. Got my chicken again. I got that ready. Finish opening this package. Now it's a little bit bowed out, it's still pretty solid. If you're grossed out by the fact that I'm using my hand, nobody's gonna eat this. I'm not working at nobody's kitchen, I'm not at a restaurant. This is my kitchen, this is what I'm doing. I'm the only one eating this, be okay. So, pop this back in, pop the basket back inside there, and you know, like I said, I just yeah, I'll reach for a paper towel because like I said, I don't know. I just like to have clean hands. Alright, so here we go. Fun fact this thing should already be on, but we're gonna test it. Top button, turns it on, button underneath that. I don't remember what it does actually, but all this gets the timing and the in the you know the timing and the temperature set down right. Far right hand side is my power button. So I turn that on. Next thing we're gonna do is set a timer for three minutes and 30 seconds, then we're gonna let that cook. After that, we'll take it out, flip it over. That's what these tongs are for. Put this paper towel back over in this corner, right next to where this counter meets the stove, because that just makes it easy for me to find. Alright, so we've got, I don't know, a few seconds left for this to finish cooking. Actually, I only put it for 3 minutes, 30 seconds because I want to flip that over and then get it crispy and nice on both sides. We'll do that in a minute. But I figured while we're waiting, I could explain this panini press. So one second. Alexa, cancel my timer. She is super helpful when she listens, actually. When she doesn't, then it's frustrating. But whatever. Nothing's perfect in the world. I also use the other chick that is uh gosh, how am I gonna do it without saying her name? Oh, well, yeah, the um Wow. iPhone lady. There we go. That's her name. That's what we'll call it for now. So I took my tongs out and completely forgot how they extend. It's this cool little my wife has like the coolest stuff. So this these tongs that I have, um, they close and they stay closed, but not with the rubber band thing. There's just this little so I'm holding it with the tong side on my left hand, and then that the end of it on my right. And so back here, there's this little I don't know, like a little strip. So if you pull that strip out, it locks it in place. If you pull push just push that pole in, it opens them up, which is really, really cool. So here we go. Use the tongue still flip this burger patty over. And like I said, I haven't done this a million times, I've only done it a couple. Grab that, flip that over. Full disclosure, that little paper that I put in there, guys. Huh. I burned one uh because I was preheating this little fun little gadget, and so I forgot that there was already one of those little papers in there. Fun fact let's get this thing started back again. Alright, now it's going again. One second, turn to Alexa. Alexa, start my timer for three minutes, 30 seconds. And if you can see, you you're actually literally just saw me stare off into my living room talking to Alexa. Your voice carries in the direction you're facing, so that volume she picks it up better when I'm facing her. Okay, so while we're letting that cook, this panini press is a super cool gadget. Uh, my homeboy back in Texas gave me this, man, quite a while, maybe years ago, now that I think about it. I use this thing all the time. Well, maybe not as much as I should, but Brennan and I both in conjunction use this thing. You can make sandwiches out of this, you can put grilled cheese in here. I've made quesadillas. It's a super easy way to even like heat up, warm up sandwiches and stuff like that. Alright, we're gonna power off this bad boy. The air fryer is now stopped. We'll let that sit there for a minute, it should be ready. Now I've come over to my bread, which is a really cool whole grain bread. I'm not a hundred percent sure. You guys might notice that I try to put things organization is the biggest thing that you can have at your disposal when you are blind or losing your sight. It's not a reason to flip out or wig out, just be more organized. That's all. So when I've got tiny little things like this little tie plastic thing that goes on the bread, I put it where I know I can find it, right above that paper towel. So there we go. Opening up the bread. You can probably hear the little wrapper. Oh, yeah, this is whole grain, multi-grain kind of stuff. Oh, this is the 45 calorie bread. My wife really likes this, and it's not too bad, but it's super thin. So now I scoot right over to the corner of my countertop again. Drop that in the toaster because I like I like it a little toasty. Move that down a little bit. Alright. And obviously, I forgot this wrapper was still on the counter, but that's why I leave stuff right where it was. Thought I heard a sound. It's not my alarm, it's probably something outside. Alright, walking over to my trash can, throwing that wrapper away. Had to throw the trash earlier, which was a lot of fun in the snow and ice, but it wasn't too bad. While we're waiting for that toast to pop, I'm gonna turn back around to my island and grab my plate. I've already got a plate situated while I was waiting on that patty to cook. I'm a little particular. I like to have like the yeah, I'm super picky. That's anyway. Yeah, I like to make sure that on my on the towel that I'm using, the little uh cloth that I use, I like to have the the the little label, the little tag on one side, top right corner. I know that's weird, but that's me. Sorry. So I've grabbed my plate, I've got a plate ready to go. Put the plate over here in the corner again, like I said, so that when this bread pops up, I can toss it on there and then and then pop the patty on there. While we wait for that toast again, come back over to the fridge. Now my lovely wife is amazing and helps me out in every way that she can. So she actually prepped me a couple of salad baggies before she left. Super helpful again. Not that I can't do this stuff on my own, but man, it's so helpful to have somebody that can kind of help guide you and direct you in certain things. I could have called a service to ask about, you know, all these little buttons and how they function and all that, and which one's which, and have them direct me. But since my wife was here at the time, obviously we lived together, we're married. You know, she was able to kind of show me where the buttons were, which one was which. We labeled it and then got that going. So she helped me with the instructions on that. So that's great. All right, man, this toast is sure taking a minute. Ah, there it goes. See, patience is a beautiful thing. Pop out that. Also, you want to be sure that your toast is kind of at the top. What I do, because I don't want to have to stick my hand in there. Obviously, it's hot. So the little plunger thing that you push down to get the toast, I basically hold it up because if you notice, most of your toasters are gonna pop up a little bit with that little handle, and it just pops up a little higher so that I can make sure that I'm not putting my hand down into the toaster. That's kind of a safety issue. Those of you that are like me and need that kind of a tip. Now, here we go. Here's the fun part, right? I've got the bread on my plate. I've got my plate ready. I put my plate just to the right of the air fryer. Pop this cool little button again so that we can open up the tongs. I have marble countertops. I don't know if you do, but I we we well marble, I think it's granite, whatever. But that makes it super easy for me, especially to be able to put this air fryer basket like directly on the counter and not have to worry about anything. Alright, so I've got this patty with the tongs, toss that patty on the bread, put the basket back in. Did I tell you guys I burnt one of those wax papers a while ago? Yeah, good times, good times. What happened? What happened is that, um, yeah, so I was preheating it, and again, if I've already told you this, sorry, but I was preheating the little machine, the air fryer, and I forgot there was a wax paper in there, and so yeah, that happened. Pulled it out, got a fresh one, put it in there. We got this bread, we'll put that away in a minute. Put it here on the counter. Tongs. I'm gonna actually put these back over by the sink so that I can wash them later. Come back over to my counter. Here's my plate with my patty and my bread. Walk back over to the island. I've worked out this spacing because I've done it so many times. Um, this is a pretty small kitchen, so that makes it pretty easy too. So, what I'm gonna do with this salad now, this is finishing up this sandwich. So, I'm actually gonna take out oh, it's nice. It's a big old chunk of broccoli, it's beautiful. I'm not gonna eat this as a salad, but there I'm gonna take this leafy stuff and put it on top of this patty. It doesn't actually need cheese. This patty is pretty cool. I mean, I could put extra if I wanted to, but it already has cheese baked into the into the actual patty, so it's pretty much like pre-made, ready to go. So I'll eat the broccoli kind of as a side instead of chips. Toss. There we go. And pop this bread back on top of the other top of the other toast there, and we are ready to eat. Noticed that my patty wouldn't wow, this patty is so big. It covers uh it over overflows the bread. Beautiful. Alright, well, thanks a lot. I'm gonna walk back over here because I forgot my paper towel. Thanks a lot for watching. I hope you enjoyed this quick little uh huh, little video on me cooking, cooking blind, getting through it, enjoying just again. There's nothing you can't do. You might need a little help to get going at first. There might be some things that you you know haven't ever done yet. You can still do all the stuff you want to do. If you love to cook, this is just super simple cooking stuff. This is basically warming up food. But if you love to cook, if you love to do that kind of stuff, you can still do it, even if you're losing your sight. Please, please, please understand. Just because you can't do the stuff you used to do the way you used to do it, doesn't mean you can't do it at all. You've just got to find a new way. Doing it blind is not impossible. Sometimes it's frustrating. Let's be real. But hey, anything worth doing has a cost, it comes with a cost. So be encouraged today, guys. If I can do it, you can do it. I can feed myself. Praise the Lord. Thanks for watching. This has been David Gallegos. Thanks so much for sticking around to the end of the video. I just want to say a couple of quick things before we go. If you're watching this on YouTube, do me a big favor. Give me a like, a thumbs up, uh, hit the subscribe button, drop a comment, let me know what you thought. If you hated it, and let me know that too. I give me some feedback. That's totally fine. If you're watching it on whatever other streaming platform, whatever you're watching your podcasts on, um, yeah, reach out to me if you want. All my social media contact is in the info down in the bottom. So I'd love to hear from you, and I hope you guys enjoyed just a quick little tips and hacks and things that we went through today. I want to leave you with this final, final thought. And that is remember. I've talked about the five R's before. It's like a lot about relationship. But today I want to say R. Remember. Remember that you've done hard things before. You might be learning new skills, you might need to learn new skills, you're going through a difficult situation, whatever it is. I want you to remember you've done hard things before. I want you to remember that there are people around that will help, that will give you a helping hand, that'll encourage you, that'll be there for you to walk with you through this situation. And remember, always, always, always, you can reach out to me uh several different ways. Like I said, you can drop a comment, find me on social. I would love to chat with you, especially if you're going through something difficult right now in this time, in this season, you're losing your sight, you're going through kidney failure. I haven't talked about that, but that's also some stuff that I've got some experience with. So yeah, hit me up. You guys have a great day. Be blessed, and don't forget, you can do it, even if you gotta do a blog.